Felt wads....again.

You folks talked a lot about "felt wads" last fall....even all last year, and you mentioned where you bought 'em and how you lubed 'em.
And I thought I had 'earmarked' most of those threads, but it looks like silly old me somehow screwed-up that simple task.

Anyway, I have looked 'till my eye balls are sore, reading dozens and dozens of the old threads through the search feature, but I can't find exactly what I though I had seen before.........

Exactly which particular felt, using the attached link, did you guys recommend?

http://www.sutherlandfelt.com/overstock.htm

Thanks!

Russ

You also may be thinking of http://www.durofelt.com/

I've never used "sutherland felt". Most of the pre-packaged felt wads you see are fairly high density (measured by weight) and about 1/8" thick. Most of the felt wads recommended are high density. I just order the off- color or "seconds", if available, in high density-heavy weight at 1/8" thick. Slightly thinner wads would likely also be useful.

So is this the stuff ?
The one that is out of stock ?

Another question:
Could a thicker or say 2 Wads be used to take up space on reduced loads, instead of using a Filler ?

http://www.durofelt.com/image_26.html

"Could a thicker or say 2 Wads be used to take up space on reduced loads, instead of using a filler?"

In a word, yes, but look for the medium density that's ~3/16" thick. Btw, Duro Felt is wonderful to deal with.

I have bought 45cal 1/2" tall fiber filler wads from Circle Fly, lubed and split them.

Get large pieces of REAL wool felt. I cut up an old policeman's coat from the 1930's label read 100% wool felt. I cut the patches into approx. 8" x 10" pieces, I heat bees wax & crisco combo in an aluminum pan over a large pot of boiling water. Lay the pieces in and throughly soak. Remove with tongs and lay on tin foil till cool and hard. Then proceed to punch out thousands of FREE wads.I store them in ziplock bags with a little cornmeal to keep seperated.

I can highly recommend Durofelt for both their products and their service. They are great folks to deal with. I buy seconds and discontinued or whatever is the best buy. I punch my own wads and card wads.

I go to second hand stores or yard sales and look for old cowboy hats of sufficient thickness and use a wad punch to make my wads. I use T/C Bore Butter melted in an old small can and stir in the wads until all liquid is absorbed . Then I store in Altoids tins until used. Works great and is real cheap compared to store bought wads.

Where can I get (wad punches)? I need 45-50-54 cal.
Thanks

A couple of ways to go. Get some quality steel tubing and grind your own. Easier said than done and the quality, utility and durability may be questionable. Or, Buffalo Arms, Dixie and others sell punches. I use the "tube", hammer type offered by Buffalo Arms for .45 and the "arch", hammer type (Osborne brand) sold thru Dixie for the larger calibers. They aren't cheap but are good quality, easy to use and have been very durable.

Any hardware store should have a hole punch set to handle hole punching up to 1/2".As for higher calibers you will need to check the various BP accessory suppliers.

birddog6, Try leather goods suppliers, Amazon.com, and eBay. Search for arch punches.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Hellgate

I have bought 45cal 1/2" tall fiber filler wads from Circle Fly, lubed and split them.

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Excellent choice. I've realized the highest advantage in both ball and shot loads using the Circle Fly fiber wads. I prefer the un-lubed and edge-lube only (the only part on the wad that counts is that which comes in contact with the bore, putting lube anywhere else is just adding payload mass and not serving any function) Another nice thing is that the fiber wads can be easily split to adjust thickness as desired.

Mark

I bought my punch set at Panhandle Leather in Amarillo. It goes up to 1/2 inch. You can get individual punches from Dixie Gun Works, bought my punches for my blackpowder shotgun wads there IIRC.

Take a look at the sticky, "The Muzzleloading Shotgun", in this forum.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=2605

McMASTER-CARR has the wool felt and punches that work really well. I make all of my own including 12ga. BP loads.

Here is two of the pages at McMasters
http://www.mcmaster.com/#hole-forming-punches/=bbf9st

http://www.mcmaster.com/#felt/=bbfa5r

Thanks to those responding, sorry I'm so late in getting back.

In the meantime I got involved in making up a few grease cookies. I ordered an Arch Punch from Amazon.com...nice write-up, lots of good words used in describing it, and supposedly a full 1/2".
When I get it, it has Stanley in big bold lettering, and it only punches a wad with a diameter of .497 on egg cartons.
(I suspect that comes from depressing the carton with the punch when I hit it.
It seems to give me 'very close' to .500 on milk boxes.)

It is sharpened by the outside bevel, and I've been thinking maybe I could sharpen it from the inside also and pick up a couple of thousandths which might make a better functioning grease cookie...when I got my last vegie wads from Circle Fly they were .510 and are about right for the .50 caliber, IMO.
.013 sounds like a lot, but do you agree I could likely pick that much up from sharpening or beveling the inside of the punch?

After all this babble, I suspect my main question is, is .497 big enough for grease cookies?

Russ

my buddy uses a .50ae cartridge i sharpened up with my deburring tool. it cuts at .530".

http://emshootingsupplies.com/wads.html